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Chapter 15 First Amendment: Freedom of Religion Many provisions of the Bill of Rights respond to colonial experience with abuses of power under British authority. Attention to religious freedom reflects an appreciation of the historical reality that colonization in large part was driven by persons seeking to escape religious persecution. . . . Read more

Chapter 22 Fourteenth Amendment: Right of Privacy/Liberty Interests Judicial supremacy in interpreting the Constitution was established two centuries ago in the benchmark case of Marbury v. Madison (1803). Although the Court had power to review the output of the political branches, it did not define boundaries on what limits the . . . Read more

Chapter 15 First Amendment: Freedom of Religion Many provisions of the Bill of Rights respond to colonial experience with abuses of power under British authority. Attention to religious freedom reflects an appreciation of the historical reality that colonization in large part was driven by persons seeking to escape religious persecution. . . . Read more

Chapter 14 First Amendment: Freedom of the Press Freedom of the press in the United States emerged against a centuries-old backdrop of official suppression. Introduction of the printing press in the fifteenth century presented a threat to established political and religious orders accustomed to controlling the stream of information. Responding . . . Read more

Chapter 17 Fourth Amendment: Search and Seizure The Fourth Amendment, like many other provisions of the Bill of Rights, emerged in response to colonial experiences with the abusive police practices. Under English rule, the King’s agents were empowered to search dwellings and other places on the basis of mere suspicion . . . Read more

Chapter 8 Race The equal protection guarantee emerged as a significant constitutional force when it was used to dismantle official segregation. Following the decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Court confronted widespread resistance to implementing its mandate to desegregate public schools. Over the course of nearly two . . . Read more

Chapter 11 First Amendment: Freedom of Speech (Content Regulation) Freedom of speech has been referred to as the most essential liberty. As the Court put it in Palko v. Connecticut (1937), expressive liberty is “the matrix, the indispensable condition of nearly every other form of freedom.” This observation is consistent . . . Read more

Chapter 2 The Power of the President The boundaries of presidential authority initially were tested in Marbury v. Madison (1803), when the Court determined that not even the chief executive was beyond its power “to say what the law is.” The Marbury decision, like the Court’s ruling in United States . . . Read more

Chapter 21 Eighth Amendment: Cruel and Unusual Punishment The death penalty has been an extremely contentious issue in the United States for decades. The Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on the subject reflects this controversy. In a 1971 decision, McGautha v. California, 402 US 183 (1971), the Court ruled that the death . . . Read more

Chapter 12 First Amendment: Freedom of Speech (Content-Neutral Regulation) The concept of content neutrality, during the final decades of the twentieth century, has evolved as a particularly significant limiting principle. Insofar as a regulation is understood to regulate a concern unrelated to or secondary to speech, standards of review are . . . Read more